As Ixta (pronounced Easter!) Belfrage writes in her bright and brilliant new book, Fusão, “People approach cookbooks in all kind of ways. Some find comfort in following recipes to the letter and are happy to be guided to great results. Others keep cookbooks on their bedside table and read them cover to cover, like novels. Some skim through methods, focusing on pictures and keywords, so they can riff off the recipe without following it too closely. Then there are those who just like to look at the beautiful pictures” I quote this as I’d coincidentally been thinking along these lines as I was mulling over how to write about the dynamic appeal of Fusão and, indeed, her two previous books, Mezcla and, with the Great Man himself, the earlier Ottolenghi Flavour. Cookbooks do not all provide the same service. Perhaps that doesn’t need stating, but sometimes I feel that all cookbooks are too readily evaluated according to how satisfactorily they answer the need for quick, simple, everyday recipes. And that’s wonderful when it's done well, but as a food-obsessive and cook, I also prize writers who encourage me to think a little differently, introducing me to untried flavour combinations and exhilarating new ideas that invigorate my cooking. And this is Belfrage’s great gift. A little after the extract I quoted above, she expresses her hope “that the recipes will spark ideas and encourage you to create combinations that feel uniquely yours”. And that’s exactly what her books do.
In part homage to her Brazilian mother, in part an expression of her own expansive, boundary-less approach Fusão (subtitled Untraditional Recipes Inspired by Brasil) is a deeply thoughtful book and an excitingly inspirational one. I feel I learn something from each recipe, especially from the little but important touches with which she completes her dishes and which have wide-ranging potential beyond this impressive book.
My shortlist of recipes to galvanise you in the kitchen would have to start with her Golden Vinaigrette, hot with Scotch bonnet and sharp with lime; then the Angu (think polenta) with roasted oyster mushroom & spiced tomato sauce; Coconut & ginger roasted cherry tomatoes; Sweet & sour carrots with hot sauce & lime; Egg, tomato & greens soup; Corn Pie with caramelised onions & green chilli oil; Moqueca fish burgers (which I’ve eaten and are sublime); Roast mackerel with lime butter & green chilli vinagrete; Grilled fish with mango curry butter; Crab, coconut & courgette omelette; the intriguing Chicken in beetroot sauce; Duck in golden tomato broth; Slow-cooked pineapple pork with green vinagrete; Vaca atolada, a rich beef stew, the name of which, in English, would be “cow stuck in the mud”; Duck rice; Mango, ginger & lemon sorbet; Papaya, lime & chilli granita; Pineapple Torte; Passion fruit & white chocolate mousse with cacao-cinnamon crumble; and Guava, strawberry & black pepper caipirinha!
And the recipe I’m particularly eager to share with you today is the rapturously beautiful Scallop crudo with orange & burnt chilli vinagrete. If raw fish is not for you, please bear in mind that Belfrage invites you to cook them instead, and gives instructions for doing so.
Extracted from FUSÃO by Ixta Belfrage (Ebury Press, £28).
Photography by Kim Lightbody and Pedro Pinho.
